Week 43 with Triplets
A cold puts the babies out of sorts
Hard to know where it started, but Bean and two adult family members started the week off with a nasty cold.
Short of putting one in quarantine it’s impossible to keep the babies from sharing germs, so it was only a matter of time before Melon and Bear showed symptoms.
Bean bounced back quickly, but Bear was diagnosed with an ear infection by Thursday and Melon was simply feeling less than her peppy self.
All three spent Friday home with mom, so I took advantage of a nice Spring day off to hit garage sales.
Hopefully they’ll recover over the weekend and I’ll have my rambunctious crew back in the daycare on Monday.
Nothing Keeps Them Down for Long
Even with the babies feeling icky, there was still plenty of fun.
The girls love chasing each other. I’m not sure if the goal is “follow the leader” or “keep away”, but they certainly have a lot of fun with it.
I’ve also been playing with the triplets individually by passing a bouncy ball back and forth. One day I was lucky enough to capture a video for the family of Bear and Melon playing together.
Normally Bear is simply trying to take toys away from the girls. This dynamic was a little different in that, in addition to trying to keep the ball away from her brother, Melon seemed to be entertaining Bear with the ball.
While Bear was certainly interested in taking the ball, he also seemed content with the entertainment value she provided after he was unable to grab the toy.
Sadly the game was disrupted when they became distracted by my filming.
Safety Upgrades Continue
Not the first time, nor last time I’ll say it, but babyproofing around these kids is next level. You’re not protecting from one baby trying to overpower a barrier, but three of them working together.
The kitchen continues to grow as a place of interest for the babies.
This makes perfect sense, since it’s a room I go into frequently during the day to make their bottles, make lunch for myself or clean up after meals.
It’s also a wide open room not cluttered with toys. This means normal kitchen surroundings become opportunities to explore.
The oven is smart enough to have an electronic lock for the door. This is part of a safety feature that also disables the touch panel, preventing a child from turning the oven on.
The knobs on our stove are somewhat unique (Samsung), so we’ll have to use a special security apparatus once their tall enough to reach.
So far the cabinet locks are holding. Hopefully that continues, otherwise we’ll have to add screws instead of relying on sticky tape.
Stairway Swing Gate
If you read last week’s blog post, it explained how I assembled a custom swing gate for a unique staircase in the kitchen.
This weekend it was time to upgrade another barrier in the daycare. That would be the tension barrier on the stairs leading up to the bedrooms.
When Bean started showing interest in climbing up stairs, she was the only one. This mean that, as long as she was the first taken up and the last brought down, I could simply put that barrier up and down at nap time.
Now, I have all three interested in climbing stairs so it’s not safe leaving the stairs unprotected for any length of time.
Getting weary of trying to step over it all week — on a staircase mind you — I finally went out and bought a swing gate.
Unfortunately this means that it needs to stay in place, even when the triplets go home, but safety is the priority.
Retiring Toys
Over Spring Break I reconfigured the daycare space a bit. This included letting go of some larger toys that we felt the babies were outgrowing.
With the weather changing garage sales are increasing and it will be hard to resist picking up age-appropriate toys. The rule I’ve imposed for myself is trading out old toys for new.
After picking up a set of soft building blocks this weekend, I went through their toy bins and pulled out toys that were clearly meant for infants.
While I enjoy the process of clearing out clutter, it also means recognizing that the triplets are getting older. Mixed emotions for sure.